Wednesday, January 26, 2011

the helmet stick

Please select a better resolution than the shitty default 240p that youtube now gives you by default (it's a the bottom, to the right of "youtube"). I'm uploading it to vimeo too.. I'll change it tomorrow morning.

The video was shot on Jan 20 and those are ALL the four "so and so" (for the Maui standards) waves I caught with the helmet. The idea was just to experiment only, but the result is so cool that I had to edit a little video anyway. Better than this, I think it will only take a little RC helicopter that follows the sailor.

I read on a GoPro brochure that there finally is a remote control available. Request email will be sent immediately after this post...

Yesterday I surfed 2 hours the morning and sup surfed 4 hours in the afternoon.Today I surfed 3 hours in the morning and wavesailed 3 hours in the afternoon.Not too shabby for an old man. BTW, does anyone know a good glue to reattach human arms?

This morning I took a few photos with the gopro.

Cheap seaweed entertainment. Hey, I look allright, don't I?!

Golden retriever.

Intense expression trying to drop in very late. I did drop in... but I rode the whole wave belly down laughing like an idiot.

Top turn.

100% natural and spontaneous comb over.

"I'm gonna tear this wave apart" face.

Two seconds later.

Two seconds later.

Two seconds later.

Two seconds later.

Two seconds later. The wave went on for 10 more seconds, but the photos are not as good.

Kanaha is a wave that is pretty damn easy (provided you can catch one with 100 standup surfers all around). One thing is very difficult though: the duck dive. The wave is soft and doesn't break top to bottom, yet it moves a hell lot of water.

I like this one. If my right arm was lower and pointed towards the water in direction of the west maui mountain I would like it even better.

One more.

Tonight's wave sailing session was bloody freaking phenomenal. For once, the early sesh was better than the late one (someone will be happy to read this...).At the beginning, in fact, the wind was barely enough for a pure slog and surf action and the waves were clean logo high perfection. Later the wind got stronger and it got a bit choppier. Still fun though. The swell was pumping (you guys seen the action at the Volcom pro?) and those waves were sooooooo beautiful.

I am extremely grateful for how great my life is. I'm also exhausted. And I'm gonna go to sleep. Right now. Goodnight.

17 comments:

More closeup than that?!Couple of holes in the helmet, couple of hose clamps, a stick (mine is a piece of broken carbon paddle) and the handle bar gopro attachment.So easy that it doesn't deserve a closeup...

Nord roi,so do you have an account open at any Maui bar? :)Nope, it doesn't give a better perspective of the size of the waves. The waves were still way bigger than it looks. Stop at 1:29 and check the size of the wave against the other sail in the background...

Niclas,that one is cool too, but mine is way easier to build. Two problems though: 1) on the very first wave the camera is at the very tip of the stick (and I like this angle the best) and I can't reach it with hand. So that is not a good place for me (until I get my hands on a remote control), since I don't like to shoot the whole freaking session.2) When on the very tip of the stick the camera is pretty heavy and in order to reduce the weight leverage I was sailing kind of looking down a bit (stick more vertical). I think a long session like that would cause a bit of neck stress.Also, I don't think it would be great in strong winds, since it would bounce too much with the chops. The wind was very light in my session.

When I put it halfway on the stick (second and third wave) the leverage was less, I could even reach it with my hand, but the angle is slightly less cool (can't see my shoulders and don't see much of the board).

I attached the stick to the helmet with an angle looking down. Ok, maybe I should put a photo of it... but knowing myself I know I will forget!Ah, forget about the face shots: that was very dangerous. The camera wanted to hit the boom and I had to be extremely careful when jibing/tacking. Good for a shot (with snot!), but I'm not doing it again.

That was one of the best angles I've yet seen with the go pro (on the helmet stick). When we sail, we tend to keep our head level with the horizon, unless going for air, so the result seemed closer to real than any other angle I've seen yet, not so jerky with all the other angles.As for neck strain and the weight issue, maybe you need a counter balance, camera in the rear, weight up front, balance it out. And it's a good way to get a Laird neck. =]

Anon,I thought about the counter balancing with a weight on the front... which would be another gopro for a real double POV of the same wave (the one I edited was clearly "fake", meaning it was two different waves). But as I explained, the camera on the front is a no-go. You don't want to have anything sticking out in front the helmet. Plus its footage can get snotty... :)

looks like you could get some interesting POV from higher up the mast, pointing forward, down or back. PS - I'm wondering what software you use for editing HD video? (if a PC, if a mac never mind I know the answer)

Ahh, so movie maker did not like the MPEG4 format of my new GoPro 960. On my Win7 laptop I got the latest window live movie maker which handles MPEG4 fine, but does not have timeline editing which I like much. So... you got a way to get WMM to like MPEG4? (PS - I got a way to install WMM on Win7 if that helps anyone).

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About Me

Born and raised in Italy, I became an engineer and worked 11 years in the IT industry. Sick of that, in 2001 I wanted to take a year off and spend it in Maui, the best windsurfing spot in the world. Not only I'm still here (in Maui), but I also got into surfing. And the stoke is flying high. Life is too short to work 8 hours a day...